Launch Party Part 1

Hey everyone, it's Jenna.

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I'm Jenna Fisher.

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on The Office together and we're best friends.

And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch podcast just for you.

Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.

We're the office ladies.

It's party time, everybody.

It's a launch party.

Or is it a lunch party?

How dare you?

Is it a lanch party?

Get out.

You and Kevin can get out.

That is one of my favorite jokes.

Lanch party.

Yeah.

Would that be better, Kevin?

Would that be better for it to say lanch party?

Well, it is a launch party.

It is another one-hour episode.

So you know what that means.

We're doing launch party part one today.

This was season four, episode five, written by Jen Salada and directed by Ken Whittingham.

I mean one of our favorite duos.

Oh yeah, and this was actually Ken's sixth episode that he directed.

We love Ken so much.

I want you guys to know if you watch the bloopers, you will see a few times Jen and Ken cracking up and they whip the camera over on them and bust them.

But they were just so fun on set, weren't they, Jenna?

They were so like light and there for you and ready to laugh.

I loved the two of them together.

Same.

All right, lady, should I hit you up with a summary?

Well, yeah, we got a lot to cover, so let's go.

Well, here's what we're going to talk about this week.

On the day of the Dunder Mifflin Infinity website launch, Dwight makes it his goal to beat the website in sales to impress Angela.

Jim and Pam prank Dwight into thinking the computer is communicating with him, and Michael thinks he got invited to the fancy launch party with Sushi in New York, but he is embarrassed to learn he was only invited to attend virtually.

Yeah, he was invited to a chat room,

which he thought was a club that had a secret password.

Exactly.

The password is password.

Yeah.

Is there a WWW before that club name?

Well, listen, this episode also features a very famous cold open from the series.

You know the one I'm talking about, Angela.

I do.

I love it.

And Jenna, I have had people write in and tell me that they do this in their office now.

Yes.

That it sort of started a thing.

When I watched this episode with Lee, he said, I've done this.

I've done this.

So it's the one that takes place in the conference room, and everyone's watching this little DVD square on the screen behind Michael as he is trying to lecture us about, I don't know what, ideas to improve.

Quarterly.

Yeah.

He's trying to tell us how to improve or spruce up the quarterlies, right?

They're boring.

Very boring.

Well,

we thought that today, in lieu of fast facts, we should do a deep dive on this cold open.

We should, you guys, because there's some fun, fun info for you.

So we reached out to our writer, Jen Salata, because we heard a rumor that this might have happened to her in her real life.

It was somehow based on her, right, Jenna?

Yes.

And she had some great stuff to say.

So let's do a deep dive with this cold open.

Cold open, deep dive, Sam.

Will you play my son's sting?

You got it deep, you gotta dive.

You put them together, get it to the VR.

There it is.

There it is.

All right, so like we said, Michael's having a meeting and behind him is this TV screen.

And you don't really know what's going on at first because it just keeps panning around to everyone in the conference room and we are oddly riveted by what Michael is saying.

Yeah, and what he's saying is so boring.

Like he's saying, I want to make suggestions to spruce up these quarterly reports.

He's saying things like, what if in a bad quarter, there's a storm cloud or in a good quarter, there's fireworks or a race car?

And then we all go, ugh.

And he goes, not a race car, it doesn't have to be a race car.

So then we go to this gym talking head and he explains what's going on.

He says that they are all wanting to see if this little DVD cube on the TV screen will hit perfectly in the corner.

And he says he doesn't think it can happen and that Pam claims she saw it once when she was alone in the conference room.

And then, Jenna, it cuts to your talking head.

And you're so cute in this.

You're like, I did see it.

Did Jim say I didn't see it?

It's very cute.

It seems like we get to see a little joke between Jim and Pam.

Yes.

So then the boring meeting continues.

And then finally, it happens.

The little cube goes in the square and everybody cheers.

And Michael thinks that it is because he has said something brilliant.

Yeah, his whole Where's Waldo thing was a big hit.

And he's so happy.

Michael is like, hey, some days you just got it.

Yeah, some days you're just on fire.

Yeah.

Well, I remember shooting this, Angela.

It was so much fun.

But it was also like something we had to choreograph.

Do you remember?

I do.

And guys, it is true that this cold open was based on a real life experience of Jen Salata in the writer's room, and it was the inspiration for her writing this little cold open.

We asked her about it, and here's what she had to say.

So, the inspiration for the cold open, where the DVD logo bounces around the TV screen and everybody's transfixed, was definitely the writer's room.

I was obsessed with it.

We would all watch the little DVD logo, and I remember that I saw it once hit perfectly in the corner, that the edge of the logo lined up with the edge of the TV, and it just felt so good.

And I

remember there was at least one non-believer in the room, and it would hit like kind of close to the corner, and they'd say, That was it.

That must be what you remember.

It's not going to hit perfectly in the corner.

And so I was transfixed with the logo and watching it a lot of the time, and maybe not paying attention as much as I should have to the task at hand.

So that is where where the inspiration for it came from.

So basically Jen was Pam.

Yes, Jen was Pam and no one believed her and she was adamant about it and she wanted everyone else to see it go in the corner to like affirm her.

This is what I love about Jen.

If you guys have noticed, you've been listening to our podcast, her episodes are so personal to her life experience.

Yeah.

I mean, the WebMD thing, remember that she wrote about and now this.

And there's always these little moments from Jen's Jen's actual life and I think it is such a nice touch and there are always these really ordinary moments that might otherwise pass you by and something in her brain makes note of these and that is why when you watch this cold open it is so deeply relatable It really is.

I mean, Jenna, you and I both tempt.

We sat through boring meetings all the time.

And Jenna, you do this.

You find little hooks of something happening to get you through it.

And it's like sometimes nothing you even like speak about with your other coworkers.

You just all like lock on to something.

I tempt at this office and all the executive side of the building face like a nice view of the city, but everyone in cubicles faced a parking garage.

Okay.

Okay.

This parking garage became our entertainment.

Like every day I'd be like, what's happening in the parking garage?

And they'd be like, oh, you remember Blue Zippy Guy?

You know, Blue Zippy Guy.

He always zips around in that blue Toyota.

Oh, yeah.

Blue Zippy Guy got a new car.

What?

No.

Yeah.

And then one day, oh my gosh, it was like, it ate up our whole day.

There was a couple that would meet in the parking lot at lunch.

Lady, I shit you not.

It was like their meetup place.

What?

And yes, they would pull up in two cars.

We'd be like, uh-oh, they're here.

They're here.

And then they would get in one car and they would talk.

Sometimes they would kiss.

Nothing, nothing more than just like a smooch or two but we became so invested in the parking lot couple they were having an affair that must have been an affair i i why do you why would you meet up in a parking garage and in two separate cars and then get into one car and like smooch and stuff if you're not like sneaking around well that is not normal i guess you're right

unless it's like their lunch break or something i don't know that's what i i it was around lunch and sometimes they would eat lunch together.

So I thought, well, maybe they're a couple.

Oh, well, then maybe they're a couple.

I don't know.

But also, maybe it was Taudrey.

I don't know.

But one day they got in a fight.

Oh, we didn't know what it was about.

We saw like sort of like hand, like by that, you know, you can tell body energy in the car.

And then he got out and he slammed the door.

And he kind of like leaned back on the back.

I'm telling you, this is all we could think about.

We couldn't think about any of the like work we were supposed to be doing.

We're like, oh, he is pissed.

Have you seen?

He's leaning up on the back of the car.

Have you seen him?

Oh, there goes blue zippy guy

that couple that parking garage was your dvd square yes yes but this is what i love about jen is these little tiny moments that are so relatable when you work in an office all day you have to find little things to get you through absolutely well angela you mentioned that when we were shooting this, it was really technical and we got a lot of fan questions about it.

Oh, let's hear them.

All right.

Sandy P, Megan S., Miranda D, Mo Downey, and Amanda McKnight all asked, how in the world did you time the cube to go in the corner at exactly the right moment?

Did the show need to create like a special program for the DVD screensaver?

You know, Ange, when I watched this, I have to say I was kind of amazed.

And I could not remember how we did it.

I thought, did they make like a

DVD disc and we had to time it all out?

Yeah, I sort of remembered Ken Whittingham giving us cues.

Did you remember that?

Oh, like hand signals of when to cheer or when to be shocked or all of our reactions.

Yeah, but I can't be sure.

I feel like Ken was giving us hand signals, but you know what?

We asked Jen and she had a little something to say about it.

So I couldn't remember how we actually filmed the DVD logo part of the scene.

So I asked Dave Rogers, who edited the episode, and he said that we put the DVD screensaver in later.

It was burned in later.

So it was just a blue screen on the monitor while we were filming, which allowed us to play with the timing of when the logo would hit the edges of the TV.

Yes.

That makes so much sense.

There was nothing on the TV.

Nothing.

And I think Ken was telling us like either like thumbs up to cheer or thumbs down.

And we had certain words that Steve was going to say as Michael, right?

That we knew.

Well, I definitely remember that.

I remember that Steve's dialogue was written and this was unusual because a lot of times we would get in these conference room scenes and we could play around and we could improvise, but not with this because it was too important that we react off of certain things he said.

Yeah, and we all had to react at the same time.

So it was very sort of like planned out.

Well, we also asked Jen about writing this dialogue, and here's what she had to say.

As far as dialogue for Steve in the Cold Open, Open, I remember

trying to match the dialogue with the reactions that everybody was having to the much more important DVD logo in the background.

Steve always makes everything better, so it's possible that some of the dialogue was changed a bit or just made better.

But I remember when we were filming it, we also, with the camera that was on you guys, we had you guys have various reactions so that we could just have them and Dave could edit them in, like just the crazy joy that you'd feel when it hit the corner and

how frustrating it would be when it missed, so that we had a bunch of reactions to play with that we could end up giving to Dave at the end when he was trying to assemble the scene.

I thought it timed out so wonderfully and captured the excitement of when that cube hits the corner.

And I just love so much how Steve plays the fact that he thinks that everything is about him, completely unbeknownst to him, with a terribly exciting thing that's happening behind him.

That is so much technical work that went into making this happen.

And by the way, Jen sent us a picture of all of us from our point of view looking at that blue blank TV screen.

So we'll post that in the pod.

Yeah, that is so great.

And what a fun thing that Jen's little idea, this thing that happened to her, ended up being this fantastic cold open.

And there is your deep dive of this episode's cold open.

I loved it.

I did too.

I enjoyed learning all those things about it myself, and I was there.

I feel like we say that a lot.

We're like, oh my God, and we were there.

And that is so cool.

And I didn't know that.

That's how I feel when I rewatch the show sometimes.

Sometimes I'm like, but I was there.

I'm in that room.

That's me.

I did that.

I did that.

Exactly.

All right.

Well, lady, I feel like we should go to break and then we'll come back and let's get into this episode.

We'll break it down.

Break it down, break it down.

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Okay, we are back for a launch party.

And Jenna, before we get into this, I just want you to know something.

I think I might have found your soulmate.

Now, look, I know you're happily married.

And Lee, I apologize, but there's something Jenna needs to know.

Jenna, Paul Riser, star of NBC sitcom Mad About You, might be your soulmate.

Why are you saying this?

He did an interview with the AV Club recently where he said, and I quote, well, I just won't watch Game of Thrones.

Oh, wait, it gets better.

He says, it doesn't come up that often.

Nobody's lobbying for me to watch it, but there are certain things that I have learned that I just am not interested in.

No matter how many times you tell me it's good, I can't.

Are you ready?

Uh-huh.

Then he goes on to say, like last year, I went on Jimmy Fallon with Helen Hunt.

And I didn't mean for this to be public, but you know, they asked, what are you doing for Christmas?

And Helen said, I'm going to go home and watch the new Star Wars movie.

And Jimmy said, what about you?

And I said,

here's the truth.

Oh, no.

I've never seen one.

And the audience gasped like I had said, I strangled a puppy.

He said, I've seen pieces.

I know what they look like, but it's not for me.

I'm not degrading it.

they're clearly very good.

I'm gonna skip it.

Oh, lady, my

soulmate.

Okay,

I am forming a dinner party for myself.

I'm gonna bring Paul Riser, and then I gotta bring Jon Favreau because I just watched him make some sourdough from scratch.

He was but Jon Favreau is doing the Mandalorian, he clearly loves

a horrible dinner party.

This is gonna, do you want conflict at dinner?

Oh my gosh, you're so right.

Invite me.

I'll be the buffer, okay, between you and Jon Favreau.

But I love that Paul Reiser said, I'm going to skip it.

Oh, my gosh.

I got so tickled when I read that.

I've been saving that.

I couldn't wait to share it with you.

I hope that I run into him one day so that we can discuss this.

We're part of a very small group of people, but there's more of us out there.

I've gotten mail.

There's more of us out there who just do not connect to that material.

Oh my God.

And it's very validating to hear from others.

I just bought myself a shirt with baby Yoda on it.

See, I think baby Yoda is very cute.

I just maybe don't want to watch a whole show about it.

But I'll hang the ornament on my tree in a hot second, you know?

Well, baby Yoda got a name, and everyone's a buzz about it, but I know you don't care.

Well, what is it?

Grogu.

G-R-O-G-U, Gro-Gu.

Grogu?

Grogu is his name.

Okay.

Okay, Paul Riser.

I'm going to skip it.

You know what?

That was some serious PR energy.

I'm going to skip it.

What's PR?

Paul Riseriser energy.

I just love that he ends it with, I'm going to skip it.

It's so beautiful.

It's perfect.

Well, maybe we should get into this episode.

Okay, I just wanted you to know that I found your soulmate.

Anyway, let's get to the episode.

You guys, this episode starts with a fantastic scene.

Kate Flannery and John Krasinski crush this.

I was laughing so hard.

It's all so good.

John's tiny little moments.

are amazing.

So Meredith kind of is like being flirty with Jim.

She's like, hey, thanks for visiting me at the hospital.

And he's like, well, we all came to see you.

And she's like, yeah.

And then she wants him to sign her cast and she pulls up her skirt and leans her pelvis into him.

Yeah.

And Jim is like, okay.

No one else has signed it.

No one.

She doesn't ask anybody else to sign it.

I know.

She wanted one signature and she wanted it where she could see it when she gets home.

Oh, Lord.

I have a question.

Okay.

We We got a lot of fan questions about this scene, but I'm going to start with my question.

Do you get a cast

on your pelvis when you break your pelvis?

Is that even a thing?

Should I have looked it up?

I guess we should have looked it up.

I didn't think to question it, but now that you mention it, it looks like cast undies.

How do you sit in that?

How do you go to the bathroom?

I had a lot of questions.

Okay.

Do we need a real-time deep dive on pelvic casts?

I'm looking it up right now.

Do you get a cast?

This is what I'm typing in,

on your

pelvis.

Oh, God, what's going to come up?

You know, I'll tell you what, Angela, I have a lot of weird searches because of this podcast.

Oh, well, I know that.

If someone were investigating me, they would be very, very confused by my search history.

I know.

I think that all the time.

Okay, so this doctor says it's like a rib.

You can't cast ribs.

We don't cast pelvic fractures, according to Dr.

Rothberg.

Is that correct, Internet?

That's what Dr.

Rothberg says.

Well, Cody is messaging us that she's seeing the same thing, that you can't cast a pelvis.

This was similar to my back fracture.

You can't cast it.

It's like a rib break.

All right.

Well, moving on to our fan questions on this one then.

Okay.

Hannah Baumgartner, Megan Robinson, Miriam Humphrey, Miranda Dunham, Allison Ellis, and many others said,

first of all, how many casts did they make for Meredith?

And did John Krasinski sign his real name on this cast?

Because it really looks like he wrote John Krasinski instead of Jim Halpert.

And Charmaine Marshall asked, did anyone keep Meredith's cast?

Oh, we know the answers to all of that.

We reached out to Kate Flannery, the wearer of the cast Undies.

And here's what she had to say.

Kate Flannery here to clear up any mystery around Meredith's pelvis cast.

First question, did they have more than one cast?

Yes.

I actually had to come in especially, and we did about eight casts.

I literally had to lie down on my back wearing a pair of tidy whities over my clothes.

And then they did these like cast strips that they got wet with like plastic paris and they built the front of it.

So it had an elastic waistband and I had to pull it off before it got too hard.

That's what she said.

And I remember doing a MySpace post about it because I had a blog as Meredith and I wrote a whole thing that said, Meredith gets plastered.

It just writes itself, doesn't it?

I do remember doing multiple takes, although we did get it on the first one, except for the fact that John accidentally signed his real name instead of Jim Halpert.

And that is the one that I kept.

I still have my pelvis cast.

I made a coffee table out of it.

Now, I don't know what to do with it.

It's in my closet right now, but should I hang it on the wall?

I don't know what to do.

It's so good.

Maybe it should be a coffee table.

Maybe a lucite box, like an art piece

in the shrine that is the office in my house.

Anyway, I hope I answered your questions.

Bye.

I vote for lucite box.

I would so want that as a coffee table.

I mean,

it's a conversation starter.

It really is.

Well, you know, when Kate stopped by our little Zoom chat, she showed us, she held up the cast, cast, and there it is.

She's got it, and John signed it.

And if you're re-watching the episode at two minutes, 42 seconds, you can see John's signature plain as day.

Well, I love knowing that that was the first take and that they used it anyway.

They nailed it on the first take.

Their performance was so good that.

When they got in the editing room, they were like, we don't care that you signed John Krasinski.

We need this performance.

It's too good.

Yeah, I also think that was the first time, you know, because in rehearsal, Kate would not have lifted her skirt or any of that, right?

Yeah.

So that was the first time John as Jim

like

had to see all of it.

And his reactions were so honest of like, oh, God, oh, she's lifting her skirt.

Here we go.

Well, we got another fan question, Angela, from Caitlin Oliver who noticed Meredith is wearing a purplish eyeshadow.

Oh, yeah.

She looks kind of cute today.

Is this because she's back in the office or did she dress up specifically for Jim because she planned on hitting on him?

Oh, I love to think she dressed up for Jim, but I noticed that too.

Her makeup had a little bit of a zhuzh to it.

Yeah, I noticed it as well.

I like Caitlin's theory.

I do too.

Well, Caitlin, you'd probably love to know that at 2 minutes, 55 seconds, there is a fabulous shot of the plant at front reception.

Tell me more.

Well, there's a stripy pot.

Stripy pot is back, multicolored stripy pot.

I remember it.

So we are recycling pots, and this is a big leafy plant.

We'll see how long it lasts.

I need to reach out to, I don't know who it would be,

someone on Michael Gallenberg's team.

I need to reach out to him and get more information on the plants.

Who specifically, some person on our crew was in charge of those plants each week.

I need to know more.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I would love that.

Oh my God.

You know how happy I'd be to do a deep dive on Pam's plants.

Get out.

All right, this is my new mission.

We're on it.

We're on it.

We're on it.

We're on it.

Well, also, I want to put something on your radar for this episode.

We're going to track it.

We're going to track the short jokes, Jenna.

There's so many.

There's so many.

I was texting with Jen Salata last night about it.

What up with the short jokes?

We'll get to it.

So, all right, Pam hands Michael a press release.

It's a big day in this office, okay?

Michael Michael announces that he's going to New York to attend the party with all the important people.

Yep.

The non-important people are going to be at these satellite parties.

And now we also find out that Dunder Mifflin Infinity, the website, will be launching.

Yes.

And there is a moment when Michael says, hey, I'm going to the fancy party.

So if any of you guys have any good stories for me, you know, that I can talk about at the party, let me know.

There is a shot of Creed.

The camera zooms in and Creed's nodding like, yes, at like three minutes, 21 seconds.

Yep.

Jenna, this would have cut to a deleted scene where Creed goes in and pitches stories to Michael.

No.

Are you serious?

Seriously?

I am serious.

And he talks about like a guy with a bird and then someone jumps in the river and Michael's like, this is a great story.

And Creed's like, oh, no, no, no.

You can never tell this.

But Creed had some fun stuff in this episode that's in the deleted scenes.

Oh, that's that's so good.

I know.

And then we have this great talking head by Michael, where he says Dunder Mifflin Infinity is the brainchild of his brainchild, Ryan.

So therefore, this whole idea, Jenna, is Michael's brain grandchild.

It is.

And he's so proud of it.

He's so proud of it.

I mean, he basically did it.

Yeah.

If you really think about it.

Yeah.

Well, as Michael is continuing to share with the group, he mentions that Dunder Mifflin is expecting record high sales and that they are anticipating that the website will become the new best salesman at the company.

Well, this really bumps Dwight.

Yeah.

Dwight does not want to be beaten by a website.

So Dwight is going to challenge the website to a sales competition.

And he's like trying to impress Angela.

She's like, it's a waste of time.

Oh, shorty joke number one.

Angela's like, it's a waste of time.

Michael says, what's that pip squeak?

There it is, number one.

Mm-hmm.

So Jen Salata was saying she doesn't think she wrote any of these hype jokes.

And I told her that Steve used to love as Michael to like comment on my size.

Yeah.

And I know, in fact, the next one we're going to talk about was improvised.

But yes, I also loved in this scene, Jenna, that as Michael's reading the memo, Kelly's like, did Ryan mention if he's in a relationship?

Yes.

Is that in the memo?

Does the memo say anything about if he's in a relationship?

The The corporate memo.

Yeah.

Well, we had a fan question about this scene from Chris Martins and Wyatt Hensley.

They said, um, Dwight has a beard.

Is that Rain's real facial hair?

And how long was the break between episodes for him to grow this facial hair?

They also want to know, is the unshaven facial hair supposed to show how distraught Dwight is without Angela?

Well, I can tell you that the the stubble was totally thought out.

It was a plot point that Dwight is really distraught from his breakup and he's kind of let himself go.

And there was a talking head that would have supported this.

There's a talking head at the beginning of the day, Dwight comes in and Jim kind of takes a double take at him.

And he's like, what's up with the stubble?

And he's like, Friday you left nothing.

Monday you have stubble.

So now we know this episode's on a Monday, right?

But Dwight just looks at him and goes, I'm a man, Jim.

And he's like, okay,

all right, buddy.

And then Dwight has a whole talking head and he says, yeah, I stopped shaving because my girlfriend broke up with me.

And he talks about how he's in pain.

And it's comedic, but basically he's saying, my girlfriend broke up with me and it sucks.

Yeah.

So it was scripted that he would have this facial stubble, but that part got cut out.

So that sort of leaves you wondering.

But guys, in answer to the other question, there was just like in this deleted scene, a standard weekend break.

So, we would shoot Monday through Friday, and Rain just had the weekend to grow this stubble.

It's his real facial hair.

The thing, though, that gets difficult is matching it every day throughout the week.

So, on Monday, he came in with this stubble, but then they would have to match that exact length on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

So, they would have to buzz it a little bit in hair and makeup.

But, listen, guys, I have worked with men who have to shave twice a day when they're shooting because our shoot days are so long.

If they have a clean shaven look, by four o'clock, they get a little bit of a shadow and they send them back in to wash their face and shave with a razor so that we can keep shooting into the night and they match.

Can you imagine if you had to shave your legs like halfway through the day?

No.

I'd be so bummed.

Yeah.

That's a lot of maintenance.

It's a lot of maintenance.

Those guys would come in the hair and makeup trailers in the morning and they would, first thing they would do is shave.

They wouldn't even shave at home, a lot of them, because they wanted it to last as long as possible for the shoot day.

Well, then there's also the fellows that have a hard time growing a beard.

My husband's one of those guys.

Yeah.

And then I've seen in there where they have to put hair on their face if their character needs a beard.

Yeah, they get fakey hair.

Faky hair.

Faky hair.

Well, moving on.

Back in the episode, Pam has this talking head where she's going to explain this tension between Dwight and Angela.

She says Dwight Mercy killed Angela's cat and it's caused a lot of unpleasantness.

Angela has been in this real foul mood.

She has.

He put her cat in the freezer.

I'm not blaming her.

I would be in a foul mood.

I, by the way, this is setting up the runner between you and Phyllis in this episode.

That is one of my favorite of all time.

You know what I noticed in this talking head is that Pam has on that unicorn necklace again.

Oh, she switched from her butterfly to the unicorn.

She's a unicorn again, and Angela has a gold cat necklace.

I noticed that and it's real cute.

I know.

I would wear it.

I would wear it.

Well, back in the bullpen, Stanley is dancing to the music on his new website and Phyllis is so tickled.

And it's just a small moment, but these are the moments I absolutely love about our show.

Yeah.

Just these little glimpses into the different desk pods.

I just love it.

Well, then we go to corporate and

we have Orion talking head.

He is in this gorgeous corner office in a skyscraper, feet up on the desk.

And you know what?

He wants you to know, yeah, he created a website.

Yeah.

He created it.

No big whoop.

No, never.

He's not trying to reinvent the wheel, but he's taking it to the streets while while keeping an eye on the streets, Wall Street.

You know, paper buying just became fun.

Yeah, boom.

But then you hear a voice of someone who's like, I told you not to do these interviews in my office.

So first of all, it's like, how many of these has he tried to do in this guy's office?

It's not his office.

Ryan is such like, oh my God, he's such a cheeseball.

Well, and then the camera pans down and you see a name plate on the desk that says Thomas Dean.

And we got a fan question about this from Miles Peterson.

Does the name Thomas Dean have any significance?

Yes, guys.

Tom Dean was our PA and that name plate was in Tom's honor.

Okay, Jenna, I think the voice of Thomas Dean is our editor, Dean Holland.

I think it is, too.

Right?

Yes.

I would have sworn he was in the room with me when I heard that.

It's got to be him.

Yeah.

I think you're right.

Well, I want to take us now to the scene with Andy and Dwight.

I love that Dwight has his little champion, that Andy is so rooting for him in this.

He's gotten really into it.

And he says to Dwight, you know what?

You need like a noise or something for like when you make a good sale, right?

Yeah.

He's got his dry erase board.

It's Dwight against the computer.

And now they're brainstorming what's the noise that goes off whenever Dwight makes a sale, right?

We think we need a noise.

Yeah.

Here's Andy's suggestion.

He could say, kudos.

Job well done.

A chime, a bell.

And Jim is peppering in these little smart ass comments.

He's saying, how about zippity-doo-ha?

A gong?

And Dwight's like, ignore him.

Here's what we're going to do.

Here are the keys to my car.

Go out under a whole bunch of pelts.

Amazing.

There's a bear horn.

Get that.

And he does.

Yeah, he does.

Andy is going to blow a bear horn every time Dwight makes a sale.

Well, now we go to a scene that I've been waiting for.

Angela and Phyllis, they're unrolling a banner

for the launch party.

But Phyllis has printed a banner that says lunch party.

Angela is furious.

She is so pissed off.

She actually looks at Phyllis and says, What is wrong with you?

Oh, Angela is in rare form.

She's in rare form.

And there was a deleted scene that might give us a window

about this.

First of all, we know the breakup, right?

She's still mad about sprinkles.

She's ticked off.

Well, there's another layer to it.

There's a talking head where she says, Tonight, my party will be broadcast out to five other states, which means it will be compared to Denise Stimms' party in Buffalo.

Oh

my God.

There is a party planning committee rival,

Denise Stimms in Buffalo.

Yeah.

And Angela hates her.

And they get their parties compared.

What is the backstory between Angela and Denise?

Oh, it goes on from there.

She throws major shade at her.

She's like, Denise, you know what?

We can all defrost hors d'oeuvres in a microwave.

All right, that's what she does every party.

And also, Denise, you're not fooling anyone with those curls.

We know you get a perm, okay?

Like, it goes, oh my God, Denise Stims.

So she's got her breakup.

She has our cat in the freezer.

Phyllis cannot handle one simple task, and her party will be compared to Denise Stims.

So Angela is not having it.

The stakes are high for Angela.

Hi.

Yeah.

Well, this cuts to a Phyllis talking head where she explains that basically she's going to keep her cool and she is going to try out some new tactics for dealing with Angela.

She has printed out all of this advice on how to deal with difficult people.

She actually says she googled how to deal with difficult people.

Well, you know what, Ange.

What?

Obviously, I had to Google how to deal with difficult people.

I wondered if you would.

What'd you find out?

Well, what I found out is that a lot of the tactics that Phyllis uses in this episode are the advice for dealing with difficult people, asking the difficult person how they're feeling, like saying affirmative things like I could see why you might be upset, like things like that.

Well, I'll tell you something.

If someone had made a banner that said lunch party, and then turned to me and said, how do you feel about the fact that the banner says lunch?

Uh-huh.

I would probably say, I feel like you're a dumbass.

That's how I feel.

Like, that is not something you say to someone who's already annoyed with you.

So, that cracked me up when Phyllis said that.

I was like, if I was Angela, I would still be pissed off.

That would not have helped my situation.

And, you know, it's not helping, Phyllis, that Kevin is now involved in this discussion.

And then Michael walks up and says, nobody cares about this party anyway, booster seat.

Shorty joke number two.

Shorty joke number two.

And I want you to know that Steve improvised a whole bunch and I never knew what he was going to say.

And there's bloopers of me cracking up.

But

there you go.

Angela's ticked and no one is helping.

Well, this is when Angela has her talking head that I love so much.

When she says that she's been asked to plan a party with only a $65 budget and four idiots that are doing nothing but weighing her down.

Oh, and her cat is still dead.

Yeah.

And the entire world will see it, including Denise Stims.

Yeah.

Well, listen, I think we should take a break because when we come back, Dwight is going to fuel up for his big competition against the computer.

He's got to.

He's got to.

Refuel.

Yeah.

Big day.

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We'll see you in a sec.

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All right, we are back.

And like we said, Dwight is fueling up.

Literally, he's squeezing some kind of power protein gunk in his mouth.

Yeah, it's a power gel.

Of course, I had to look it up, Jenna.

Oh, it's called Power Gel.

Well, their power gels are energy gels, right?

Okay.

Yep.

And I looked them up.

Here's what they are.

They're like a liquid carbohydrate, and they're used by endurance athletes to fuel their training.

Like when you see...

guys running marathons or you know the triathletes or these people who do the whole like tour de france you know yep and they're squeezing these little tubes of things in their mouth that's what this is but it's for high endurance athletes to like replenish everything that's been depleted from the running and cycling Jenna there's so much online about these oh my gosh there are multiple YouTube videos about how to eat one when to eat them Are you supposed to eat them before doing the endurance activity, while doing it or after?

While doing it, like when you get depleted, you know?

Okay.

And talk about your random history in your search engine.

Yeah.

Jenna, I was watching a video of these two guys cycling in England who were talking about their energy gels.

I'm like, what am I doing watching these two guys in England?

Oh my God.

Also, there's a ton, a ton of like options for you if you want energy gels.

And I found one that I really feel like Dwight inspired.

What is it?

It's called Beat Elite.

No,

yes, beat elite energy gel.

You know, this is what Michael needed during fun run.

Yes, not Fattuccine Alfredo.

No,

he needed a beat elite.

Well, Dwight is being very annoying.

He's annoying Jim.

He throws his gel packet onto Jim's desk.

Yeah.

Jim has to get rid of it.

So Jim goes up to Pam and says, do you want to pull a prank on Dwight because he's being super annoying?

And Pam is, she's torn.

She's like, well, I mean, he's going through a breakup, but then

the bear horn.

Yeah.

So then Dwight like fires off the bear horn.

It's really loud.

And Pam's like, you know what?

I'm in.

What are we doing?

So Jim hatches this plan where they are going to direct message Dwight as the computer system.

They're going to send him messages as if the computer has come alive.

Yes.

And you know this is perfect for dwight yeah this is the perfect prank because of course dwight would entertain this

so when pam is typing to dwight these dms we had some fan questions from amanda mcknight and matthew lister When Pam's typing all of the instant messages, was it Jenna typing with her crazy good typing skills or was it the computer?

Well, I'll tell you.

It was both.

So when they do these scenes where something specific has to show up on the computer screen, they've created a program where it doesn't matter what button you press on the keyboard, the words come up as they should.

So you can't.

It's not fun.

It's actually, yeah.

Yeah.

You can hit any key.

You could hit the space bar five times.

The sentence will type.

Yes.

And at the end of the scene, you hit escape, and then you would usually hit like F1 and then it starts the program over again.

So they're super fun to play with.

It sort of takes you back to your childhood when you would want to pretend like you were doing something.

I always love these little programs.

But at the same time, I was personally compelled to type out the words correctly.

But this caused a problem because it was too many strokes of the keyboard because each time I hit a key,

it translated into more than one letter, right?

So it would be like, like, in order to run this program, I would have to type 24 things, but to actually type the sentence, it would be more like 48.

So I had to like really hold back.

It was, it was tough for me.

I know.

I know it was.

Yeah.

Because

your integrity as a typist, you're like, that's not correct.

That is not how many keys you hit to spell the word hello.

That's right.

And I made my living as a transcriber for many years.

I know.

So I need to type what I hear.

It was real hard.

Well, you did it.

I did it.

I got through it.

You got through it.

But it's a really cute runner for Jim and Pam, and it's making Dwight crazy.

Well, he says in his talking head, sometimes computers come to life, but he is not scared.

It is the computer that should be scared because he has been salesman

13 months out of the last 12 months.

You heard him correctly.

In February, instead of a raise, Dunder Mifflin awarded him two plaques.

I really feel like Dunder Mifflin has overlooked Dwight.

I agree.

I mean, he is clearly the best salesman and has been for a long time, and he never gets upper management.

And this is going to go on for years for him.

Now, listen, he's salty.

He's a salty character, but I feel like Dunder Mifflin could do better by Dwight.

There, I'll just, I said it.

I'm glad you said it.

Thank you.

It needed to be said.

Michael is now really needing the ladies and Oscar to weigh in on his outfit for the fancy party he's going to go to.

This shirt is ridiculous.

Ridiculous.

It's bright purple.

It has like a sheen to it.

Yeah.

Like light, light bounces off of it.

And it is so, so.

tight and Oscar has a great line.

Oscar says, is this why I'm in here?

And he just gets up and walks

I know.

And no one likes it.

All the women are like, no, no, no.

Also, Jenna, did you notice how long it is?

Very long.

He insists that it's European cut, which is the same thing he said about the woman's suit that he bought.

Michael is very attracted to this idea of a European cut.

He thinks that this is style.

Yes.

It could also be what you say when something doesn't fit you right.

Like the next time I put on a pair of sweatpants that are like too long in the crotch or something, I'm going to say, oh, it's a European cut.

European cut.

Well, then Jan calls in the conference room.

And it's clear that Michael is unsure about taking this call, but he does take the call.

He, yeah, he does not want to talk to her.

And he takes the call.

She does not want to go to the party.

She doesn't want to go.

But why?

All her friends will be there.

She's like, Michael, I was fired.

Yeah.

She's like, they're not my friends.

So Michael asks if he could bring Carol instead.

She's like, what?

And he's like, fine, I'll find someone I didn't sleep with.

Yeah.

But he doesn't want to go alone.

That's the point.

Well, there is a deleted scene.

Michael and Jan go on to have even more conversation.

And Jenna, it's all delicious.

It is all amazing.

If I could, I would have like asked them to leave it all in.

I am telling you, she says, you know what I want to do?

I want to make a pot roast.

Why don't we stay home?

I'll make a pot roast.

Oh, do you know what I did today?

I went to Costco.

I got some more Zin.

Oh, and I bought a bike.

Guess how much the bike was?

And he's like, I don't know, $60.

She goes, why would you say a bicycle was $60, Michael?

Why would you say that?

And he's like, I don't know.

And she goes, it was $500, Michael.

Oh, my God.

It's just more of a window into their relationship, and I can't get enough of it.

I can't get enough either.

It's all so good.

She bought a bike at Costco for $500.

What is she doing all day?

Wait, did she buy the bike at Costco or she went to Costco?

She bought the bike at Costco.

Oh, I see.

Well, listen, the competition is on between Dwight and the website.

Dwight is not doing well.

But in the meantime, Pam and Jim, they're in the break room, the flirt room.

They're having a snack.

12 minutes, two seconds, baby carrot alert.

John Krasinski is eating those baby carrots again.

He's back on his healthy kick.

Well, yeah, he's no more popcorn.

He's back to the carrots.

Michael walks in and says, Hey, what are you guys doing tonight?

Because I've got two tickets to the party in New York.

You want to go?

And they're like, you know what?

Why not?

They're like, sure.

Let's do it.

But then he says, all right, great, but you're going to have to duke it out.

Just let me know who wins.

And that's when Pam realizes, oh, one of the tickets is for Michael.

And then she says, as soon as he leaves the room, not it.

Smart.

Yeah.

Smart.

So Jim is going to go to this fancy sushi New York launch party with Michael.

I bet he's so excited.

Now Dwight is on the phone and he's yelling at a client for ordering through the website rather than through him.

And Jim and the computer both insist that Dwight seems worried, right?

Yep.

It's like the computer is like heckling Dwight.

He's controlling him.

And Dwight writes a very long message at 1301 and binary.

And I looked it up on the internet.

I looked it up as well.

Okay, what did you find?

find?

Well, Pam says that Dwight said, why don't you 0111111011011?

Yeah.

I ended up on Reddit.

So did I.

Whoa.

Oh, boy.

Yeah.

And someone said that

in the way that Pam reads it, it means nothing.

Right.

But if you add back the zeros that I guess would normally be there in binary code, that it spells F O.

Like

F off.

Why don't you F off?

Did you read the same thing?

I read the same thing.

There was a lot about the two ASCII codes in binary.

It was like

a little detailed.

But according to that Reddit thread that I think we both read,

hi, Reddit thread, folks.

Dwight's telling the computer to F off.

There you go.

Well, now Angela is very angry about some spoons.

This is one of my favorite scenes I ever did with Phyllis for the whole run of the show.

I was texting with Jen.

I was like, Jen, I love this scene so much.

And she said it was one of her favorite things to write, this whole exchange.

And I want you to know we could not stop laughing.

Well, I know that, Angela, because you can't see me, but I sat at reception the entire time you were were filming this scene.

Yes.

And we were cracking up.

It was so funny.

And it's in the bloopers.

And at one point, I was finally holding it together.

And then Jen Salata, who's sitting on the sofa by reception, starts laughing.

Yeah.

And I was like, Jen.

And so if you watch the bloopers, you will hear Jen laughing.

I'll tell you the line that got you guys every time.

I remember it so clearly.

It was when Phyllis says the word tone.

She couldn't get through that word.

She couldn't say tone.

She couldn't say tone without laughing.

And then I started anticipating her little mouth saying tune.

And then I couldn't keep it together.

Sam, will you play this scene?

It's at 13 minutes, 32 seconds.

I asked for assorted cutlery and I got back spoons.

These are worthless.

I want to understand what you're saying, but it's difficult for me when you use that tone.

Phyllis, these are spoons.

Spoons have rounded tops and are used to scoop things.

What we need are forks, which have prongs or tiny spears on top, and we need knives, which have blades.

Do you understand me now?

I have to say...

You can't see it when you listen to that clip, but one of my favorite moments is the hand gesture you make when you say blades

you do this little scoopy thing with your hand you're like blades we did a few takes and in one take i did forks like this like i did like prongs my fingers uh-huh but that looked too weird so then i thought i'll only do one hand gesture and i'll save it for the knife

so good and my cheerleaders out there you know that you know blades blades candlesticks come on wait that's actually a hand gesture in cheerleading for a blade?

That's blade.

Okay.

Yeah.

Candlesticks.

Candlestick is a fist.

Why did these need special names?

I don't know.

I don't know.

It was cheerleading camp.

And who even knows if it's universal?

Maybe it was just my cheerleading camp.

Are there any more?

I'm dying to know.

Well, you know, jazz hands.

Jazz hands, I get.

That's a whole thing.

I mean, you have to, like, put all your fingers out and kind of, like, flutter your hands.

I mean, that makes sense to me.

And then, this is candlesticks.

Candlesticks is fists and then blades.

Blades is just your palms up.

Yeah, like what I did in the scene.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay.

So, like, when you're doing cheerleading camp and you're choreographing your cheer,

in your head, are you thinking like blade, blade, jazz hands, candlesticks, blade, blade?

Yes.

And you're like, ready?

Okay.

Blade.

Candlestick.

Candlestick.

Okay.

Blade.

Gotta be doing this and no one can see us.

No one can ridiculous, but I am enjoying it immensely.

Okay.

Okay.

This is another thing Angela did in high school, everyone.

Also, a cheerleader.

In addition to all of the musical instruments and sports that she played.

Well, I was the mascot for football.

And the mascot.

I was the mascot for football.

And then I cheered for basketball.

No, but I told you my mom's theory is keep them busy.

They stay out of trouble.

Yeah.

And also, nothing good happens after midnight.

Nothing good happens after midnight.

Well, listen, Daryl is about to deliver some paper to Kelly.

And there's some flirty flirt that happens in that annex.

Well, Dwight is so furious that Kelly ordered off the website.

He's like, do you know what this means?

And he's yelling at her.

And Daryl's like, step off.

Well, listen, she explains.

It's really cute.

You take the paper and you put it in a little shopping basket, and it makes a cute little sound.

This is all Kelly could ever hope for.

Yeah,

online shopping.

Like, she has arrived.

But Daryl comes to her defense, like you said.

And suddenly, she's not missing Ryan so much, is she?

There's a little moment here.

Yeah.

So now we're going to move into

some

sabotage.

Did you say sandwich?

Dwight gets out this little red box.

He unlocks a lot of things and then he unlocks this little box.

And he explains that when he left Staples, he took some of the Staples leads as a souvenir.

He doesn't know why he did it.

But maybe it was to use them one day and he's going to use them today.

Yeah, he has got to beat the computer.

In his mind, if he beats the computer, he wins Angela back.

I think that's where his rationale is.

Yes, exactly.

And it's working.

He calls up and they're like, how did you get this number?

And he's like, it's not important, but do you want to save money on paper?

And they clearly say yes, because he starts logging all of these sales.

And it's a very big deal.

It's a big, big deal.

And And while this is happening, Michael and Jim are getting ready to leave for the party.

Michael sort of does this sing-song-y and tells everyone that he'll be back tomorrow, you know, the way he does his little sing-talky thing.

Yep.

And he's leaving in Jim's car.

In Jim's car.

And he tells everyone they can leave early.

And Angela's like, no, they can't.

I've been planning a party for weeks.

You can't leave early.

And then he makes fun of her and he's like, you must be this tall, or you may not ride the roller coaster.

Shorty joke number three.

That's my favorite one.

That was my favorite.

Jenna's like, Ange, I do not remember writing those.

I don't think they were in the script.

And I think Steve was just having fun.

Well, after Michael and Jim leave,

the competition is over and Dwight wins.

He beats the computer.

Like you said, Angela, he is really does not get the attention he deserves from this company.

He beat a computer.

Yeah.

I mean, yes, he had to use the stolen leads, but he beats a computer.

He beat the computer.

Andy starts blowing this bear horn like crazy.

And Angela is not having it.

She's just like, just stop it.

Well, when I watched this episode with Lee, at the end of it, he said, I have one question.

Did that bear horn really make a sound?

Or did they put that in in post?

Okay, well, here is my memory of this particular moment.

Now, I don't know about the other moments where it went off, but in this moment where I walk by, I was just supposed to walk by and sort of like glare at them and cruise on past.

And

that whole thing where I'm like, give me that, give it, that was all improvised because Andy, well, Ed is Andy, is just kind of having fun with that thing.

He's like,

he's doing a dance,

and so I had to grab at it a few times to get it.

So I just sort of improvised all of that.

And I can tell you, he was really shooting it off in that moment.

I told Lee, my memory is that they gave Ed a bear horn, and Ed had a great time with it.

I remember it going off constantly.

This reminded me of when they gave Rain the keyboard in the Dundees.

Yes.

Do not give these guys things that make sounds.

No, no props that make noises.

They cannot stop using them.

It was really funny.

So, yeah, I was just supposed to walk by and just kind of grab it and give them a look.

And that's like me legitimately trying to grab it out of Ed's hand.

Like, give it, give it here.

Well, now we cut to the car where Michael and Jim are driving to New York City.

And I noted something in this scene.

Was it when Michael blew a kiss to Pennsylvania?

Well, he blew a kiss, one for him and one for Jan.

I know.

I thought it was the cutest thing.

My kids, whenever we leave a city, say goodbye to the city.

If we're driving,

yeah, we wave goodbye.

Like if we're driving to the beach or up to the mountains, we're like, goodbye, Los Angeles.

Goodbye, beach.

And to me, it was this very sweet, childlike moment of Michael.

Well, I'll say the moment that struck me in the car was

when Michael says to Jim, you should come over for dinner on Friday night.

Oh, girl.

Oh girl.

I was like, ding, ding, ding, it's coming.

Dinner party is coming.

And also that deleted scene you talked about where Michael and Jan were on the phone and she's like, we should make a roast this Friday.

All of these things.

I feel like that's planting a seed for her osoboko.

Is that how you say it?

Asoboko.

Her five-hour

with no snacks out.

Who does that?

Who doesn't offer a cheese plate?

We'll discuss later.

When we get there,

we will have a lot of discussion about it.

But I felt like this plant at the seed, this idea that Michael was going to want Jim and Pam to come over for dinner.

Michael has also purchased a gift for Ryan.

He wanted to get Ryan, Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr.

Seuss, but it wasn't available, so he got green eggs and ham.

It's kind of the same thing, he says.

And what is Ryan going to think when he opens this?

And it's green eggs and ham.

I don't know.

Also, oh, the places you will go is such a personal message to someone.

And again, Michael doesn't have this kind of relationship with Ryan, but is convinced he does.

Yeah, and also, hasn't Ryan already gone to the places he'll go?

Well, there's that.

I don't know.

Well, Finally, on this drive, Jim asks Michael for the exact address of the party.

And Michael says it's at a bar called Chatroom.

And there's a password to get in.

And Jim's like, Michael, you were invited to the satellite party.

That's our party.

Well, first, he just pulls the car over.

Yes.

As soon as he hears us, he's like, I don't even need to hear anymore.

He just starts slowing the car down and he's going to do a Yui.

He's like, Michael.

Yeah.

And Michael is on the phone to Ryan.

He's like, what do you mean?

I'm already in the city, part of the city.

I'm in the city.

How could you do this?

He's so upset.

He feels so rejected.

Yeah.

And he throws the book out the window.

Yeah.

He's not going to give that book to Ryan anymore.

And now Michael is going to have to go back and celebrate this launch with the rest of the folks in the conference room.

The losers at the satellite party.

And Dwight is convinced that winning and beating the computer, that Angela is going to be impressed, it's going to be the thing that turns the tide, she's going to want him back.

And she is not impressed.

In fact, she's annoyed by it.

And she has a talking head where she's like, how do you tell someone it's over?

You send them a notarized letter, right?

But what

if your ex is your notary?

Yeah.

It's really perplexing.

And

she makes a big to-do of going up to front reception and telling Pam that she would very much like to date a man.

And if Pam could please set her up.

And she says it loud enough for Dwight to hear.

And then Dwight is just, oh, he's just brokenhearted.

And Pam sees it.

And so, in this way, that we have these little moments with Pam and Dwight, Pam sends him a little direct message as the computer, congratulating him on his win and telling him that he is the superior being.

But it doesn't help much.

It doesn't.

Dwight's heartbroken.

Yeah.

He's heartbroken.

And that is the first part of Launch Party, part one.

Yes.

Next week, we're going to see Angela's party in the conference room.

And Michael is going to

take the pizza delivery guy hostage.

Michael's going to be Michael.

Michael's going to be in rare form.

And Andy is going to make a play for Angela.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good stuff next week.

There's one runner in deleted scenes before we go, I wanted to tell you about Jenna because I think you really should watch it.

You would get a kick out of it.

You personally, Jenna Fisher, love the character Toby.

Yeah.

You love Toby.

And there is a Toby runner where he is taking an online like driving driver's school course or something.

And there's a series of scenes where we find out that Toby is a horrible driver.

This is such a random runner.

I know.

It's not related to anything else.

And Oscar has a great talking head talking about what it's like riding in a car with Toby.

Anyway, apparently Toby is a horrible driver.

And it just was so delightful.

It made me laugh.

They probably created that.

for Paul so that he didn't have to be in any of the main scenes.

They created a reason that his character was off doing something independently so he could actually be in the writer's room.

They would do that a lot.

Yeah, so he was through this whole episode, Toby is taking this online driver's school course.

And we find out what a crappy driver he is.

I love it.

Well, guys, that was Launch Party Part One.

We'll be back next week with part two.

Yeah.

Look out, Denise Stims.

Look out.

I don't think that Angela's going to win this one.

I'm sorry.

I don't know.

I hate to tell you.

Buffalo's gonna show you up.

All right, we'll see you next week.

Bye, you guys!

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Office Ladies is produced by Erwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey.

Our producer is Cody Fisher.

Our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubico.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to stitcherpremium.com.

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